Archive Editing Policy

This document outlines the conditions, requirements, and
considerations for processing modification requests in W3C Mailing Lists
Archives. See below for information about:

Preamble

The effectiveness with which the W3C attains its objectives
centers on a trust between W3C and its many audiences.
Participants in W3C activities, and subscribers to its lists,
where much of the day-to-day discussion of technical,
operational, and communications issues occurs, rely on the
mailing lists and archives maintained by the W3C to be
persistently accessible repositories of e-mail communications
regarding the various activities and operations of the W3C and
its contributors. Accordingly, it is paramount that the archives
are maintained at a consistent level of integrity: they should
rarely be edited.

On the rare occasions that need arises to edit information
contained in archived messages, careful examination will be given
to the particular circumstances of the request, in order to
ensure a fair and balanced disposition.

Conditions of Policy

The need for editing or excising material contained in an
archived message is addressed only when the sender of
the archived message requests it. Carefully documented exceptions
may be considered.

Role of the Sender

While W3C has implemented methods to protect e-mail addressess
in W3C-hosted list archives, it is the sole responsibility of
each user of the archives to exercise care in the disposition of
privacy information. A request for an archival edit is not a
remedy for indiscriminate handling of personal privacy
information. Neither is the editing of the archives an
appropriate solution for decreasing one's exposure to Unsolicted
Bulk E-mail, or Spam, or removing traces of embarassing or
inconvenient Public postings.

Accordingly, senders must carefully consider any disclosure of
private information or confidential comments made by named
correspondents in non-Public messages. Public disclosure of
private information or confidential communications on a W3C forum
will be rapidly crawled, cached, indexed, and recorded in many
mirror sites, and result in high scoring in search engine
returns.

Senders should include detailed justification that will give
evaluating managers and Systems staff a clear sense of the
urgency and needs of the requestor.

Specific request components

A request for an archival edit should include the
following:

A complete detailed rationale for the request.

A precise description of the material to be edited.

A statement indicating an understanding of this
policy.

General Considerations

Timeliness is paramount for effectively countering any adverse
circumstances resulting from posted material in W3C archives.
Mail sent to a list is immediately distributed to all subscribers
of the list. Therefore, requests should be submitted as soon as
the need for the action is identified.

It is the nature of the archives to house, and make available,
the records of discussion in each of the individual fora. Any
request for editing of the archives entails a change in these
records, and is very carefully scrutinized. The W3C staff will
seek to be fair, and will consider each case on its individual
merits.

While the W3C is sensitive to the need for protecting personal
information from exploitation by spammers, we cannot engage in
the revision of the archives for the purpose of decreasing one's
vulnerability to Spam or search engine exposure. Neither can we
revise archival material for the purpose of updating personal
contact information within posts: Archives are historical
documents, not personal records. If a sender posts to a Public
forum, it should be understood the information will be
publicly available in perpetuity.

All requests will be examined by W3C managers and Systems
staff to ensure careful and efficient processing of each request.
The disposition of each request will be recorded in the team-only
archive archive-editor.

Method of Request

The sender of the archived message should send a request to
archive-editor@w3.org.
This is a W3C Team-confidential list that is used to process and
record W3C staff actions, and the resolution of each request.